


Phantom Pains - SS Gift

by DisasterBisexual



Category: Undertale (Video Game), underswap
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Fluff, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Heavy Angst, Pacifist Ending, Pacifist Route, Post-Pacifist Ending, Post-Pacifist Route, Underswap AU, Undertale AU, angst then fluff, major angst, underswap - Freeform, undertale - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 19:57:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15032096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisasterBisexual/pseuds/DisasterBisexual
Summary: Life on the surface is better than Papyrus could've ever dreamed. The humans are surprisingly accepting, and monsters don't have to live in hiding anymore. There's just one problem--a single human child has the power to reverse it all, including every last bit of progress everyone has made, making them a threat to the safety and happiness of monsterkind.So, what happens when an unstoppable force of DETERMINATION and a skeleton dead-set on giving monsters a happy ending are stuck on a beach trip together with friends who are happily none the wiser? That's for me to know and you to find out.





	Phantom Pains - SS Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Observing-Silhouette](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Observing-Silhouette).



> This is my Summer 2018 Secret Santa gift for @observing-silhouette on tumblr, you should go check them out, they make some really amazing art! 
> 
> If you'd like to participate in the next event, follow @undertalesecretsanta and turn on notifications to stay up to date with their current, past, and future SS exchange projects!

Papyrus was having a bad day. It started out fairly standard as bad days go, with him jolting awake from a nightmare and almost cleaving his nightstand in half with a gaster blaster. But at noon, things were positively a mess, and by the evening, downright rotten. 

 

Sitting up in bed, he didn’t bother to check his clock. He knew it was still too early for work, and heading to the lab now would be pointless. Sighing softly, Papyrus looked out his bedside window. The backyard was filled with lush plants, dotted with grass and flanked by enormous trees that seemed to soar over the house in one glorious green arc towards the grey sky. It was beautiful, in a quiet way that touched his soul. But one look down at the glow beneath his shirt robbed him of this sense of peace. His soul was fractured. It didn’t help that his growing doubt and bitterness were starting to infringe on his physical health. 

 

Of course, things weren’t always this unpleasant. At first, he was happy. After years of being trapped in the Underground, monsters were free to roam the surface. And if that wasn’t enough, the wide grin that stretched across Sans’s face when they saw the sunset made his heart feel as though it was going to burst with joy. This was it. No more sleepless nights spent pondering what the stars really looked like, or pretending to be enthusiastic about sentry duty for his brother’s sake. He could finally breathe. 

 

But, like a bright, shimmering bubble on the ocean breeze, that moment was all too short lived. 

 

Being the curious scientist that he was, Papyrus had spent the past few months on the surface by researching his strange recurring dreams. Well, “spent” was a way to put it kindly. The truth was, every waking moment he didn’t spend with Sans, he was tucked away in Undyne’s lab, hunched over a computer as he slaved over the grueling task of finding out the truth. Undyne had grown concerned that spending so much time looking for answers would eventually frustrate him to the point of giving up, going so far as to suggest a vacation. And in a sense, she was correct; Papyrus needed a break. But not for the reasons she thought, frustration over not being able to piece together this cosmic puzzle wasn’t the source of his stress. 

 

The problem wasn’t that he couldn’t find the answers he wanted, it was that he  _ had _ found them--and knowing he couldn’t tell the others was the most painful part. 

 

What was so bad about the truth? Well, it meant that monsters had made it to the surface many times before, and were consequently sent back. Whisked away into the Underground, with no memory of sunlight or sea breezes, like it had all just been a fleeting dream. These circumstances were especially cruel, given that the answers had been dangled in front of them this whole time, and whenever they got close to finding them, the world they knew had gone back to square one. 

 

But that wasn’t even the worst of it. 

 

In all laws of the universe, a reaction can only be set in motion by an action. There had to be a catalyst, a source for the irregularities and distortions in time. The next question became, what was causing them? With his acute critical thinking skills and aid from the process of elimination, it didn’t take long for Papyrus to realize he had made a severe miscalculation. He was asking the wrong question--instead of  _ what _ , he should have been looking for  _ who _ .  

 

The catalyst in every instance of the Underground going empty was always the same--Chara falling down the mountain and into the ruins. 

 

This made sense. After all, a seventh human soul was needed to break the barrier, and without a new variable mixed into the equation, the Underground would have remained stagnant. What Papyrus  _ didn’t _ expect to learn was that Chara was directly responsible for the existence of every single timeline, the good and the bad, and, ultimately, the reason they stopped and started. The fate of an entire race rested on the shoulders of a curious human, and as he knew, curiosity could be deadly. Their lives would be spared or ended at the whim of a single child, and there was nothing Papyrus could do to stop it. If he tried, the kid could always reset and take away his memories, destroying all the progress he had made so far. All that would be left of the abandoned timelines were dreams and flickers of déja vu. 

 

Papyrus knew Sans would be devastated if he ever found out, so he kept the truth a secret from everyone, including Undyne, though it pained him to be dishonest with such a close friend. Which is why when Sans called a meeting, he showed up in the clothes he slept in. 

 

As he lifted his shirt over his head, Papyrus ignored the light of his ichor as it seeped out from the soul marker between his ribs, staining his clothes with veiny pools of orange. After a minute, though, the draining became too much of a hassle to ignore. Wrapping a fresh bandage around his central rib, Papyrus absently traced the scars in his soul with skeletal fingers. Even though the indents weren’t anywhere near fresh, they still bled like old wounds after being reopened. It was better that way, though. They reminded him of the pain in his past, and what would happen if he was careless in the future. 

 

He’d been expecting the meeting to be about something trivial, like coordinating the colors of the lawn decorations for Surface Day--the holiday marking their arrival, as well as the breaking of the barrier. Knowing they had Chara to thank for it, the same human with the power to reset the world and shut the entire monster race underground once again with a snap of their fingers, made him feel uneasy, but it was hard not to smile when he saw how happy everyone else was. He knew Sans must be looking forward to the occasion, too, and he wanted to keep his brother’s hopes and dreams alive for as long as possible. 

 

So when Sans stood at the podium, pulled a neatly folded piece of paper out of his pocket, cleared his throat, and announced his reasons for summoning everyone, Papyrus felt the inkling of something cold and unpleasant begin to gather in his bones--a feeling of dread that was unmistakably rooted in what he was about to hear next. 

 

“I AM TERRIBLY SORRY TO CALL YOU OUT HERE AT THIS LATE HOUR, PLEASE ACCEPT MY DEEPEST APOLOGIES. I PROMISE THIS WON’T TAKE MUCH OF YOUR TIME.” 

 

Papyrus felt the corners of his mouth curl upwards at his brother’s contrived words. He leaned forward, towards the seat in front of him to whisper in Alphys’s ear.

 

“how many hours did he spend rehearsing this?” 

 

Arching an eyebrow, the lizard replied with a dry chuckle, “For at least as long as you sit around fussing over science in the lab every day.”

 

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair. Why had he expected anything less from his perfectionistic brother? Although, he wasn’t fooled by appearances--the poor guy looked like he’d pass out any minute. It was the least they could all do to support him. 

 

“IN HONOR OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF OUR ASCENT TO THE SURFACE, I PROPOSE WE POOL OUR FUNDS IN ORDER TO ACQUIRE ALL THE NECESSARY ASSETS FOR A VACATION!” 

 

Papyrus blinked. A…  _ vacation _ ? As in, a long trip away from home with friends and extended family members? That certainly wasn’t the proposal he’d been expecting. 

 

“WE WILL BE HEADING TO THE BEACH STARTING NEXT WEEK, AND STAY UNTIL THE END OF THAT WEEK.”

 

Papyrus raised a brow ridge. In his experience, vacations usually didn’t overlap with local holidays. 

 

“LAST WEEK, MY ESTEEMED COLLEAGUE AND FRIEND ALPHYS SENT OUT A POLL TO ALL OF YOU DISCUSSING LOCATIONS ON THE SURFACE YOU WOULD MOST LIKE TO VISIT. THE RESULTS CONCLUDE THAT THE BEST PLACE FOR THIS VACATION IS AT THE BEACH. A NEARBY OCEAN LOCATION WOULD ALSO HAVE THE BENEFIT OF MINIMAL HOTEL RESERVATIONS.” 

 

Hmm, not a bad idea. Papyrus couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride in his chest as murmurs of excitement from the other monsters stirred in the crowd. 

 

“HOWEVER, AS SURFACE DAY APPROACHES, IT IS UP TO US TO HONOR OUR NEWFOUND FREEDOM BY RETURNING TO THE SITE OF OUR IMPRISONMENT. IN ORDER TO COMPROMISE, WE DECIDED TO COMBINE THESE TWO REQUIREMENTS. AS OF NEXT WEEK, WE WILL ALL BE HEADING TO EBOTT BEACH.” 

 

_ Oh. _ Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Papyrus looked up at his brother’s face. His cheeks were bright blue, and puffed out from the effort it took to project his voice so far, and his brow was slick with sweat. With an uncomfortable tilt in his chest, Papyrus recalled the bond between the human child and his brother. Hadn’t they been closer, even though he’d met them first? What exactly was Sans planning? 

 

“ON SURFACE DAY, WE WILL TRAVEL UP THE MOUNTAIN AND GATHER EVERYONE TO PRESENT A MONUMENT THE BRILLIANT UNDYNE HAS CONSTRUCTED FOR THIS JOYOUS OCCASION.”

 

The cigarette between Papyrus’s teeth fell to the floor. 

 

“SEEING AS CHARA, OUR BRAVE AMBASSADOR, IS THE ONE WHO FREED US FROM THE UNDERGROUND, I THINK IT IS ONLY FITTING THAT WE ALLOW THEM THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING THE FIRST TO PAY THEIR RESPECTS TO THE MOUNTAIN’S MONUMENT, IN THE SAME LOCATION WHERE THEY FIRST ARRIVED IN THE UNDERGROUND. THANK YOU ALL FOR GATHERING HERE TONIGHT, IT HAS BEEN A REAL PLEASURE.”

 

Sans’s speech was met with thunderous applause. 

 

Shocked, Papyrus felt his jaw go slack. Then, as he remembered what re-entering the mountain would allow Chara the opportunity to do, it tightened. 

 

No, he wasn’t going to let it happen again. No matter what it took, he would make sure the human child never laid a hand on his brother again. 


End file.
